Rapid global climate change will require $5 trillion annually to address the terms of the Paris Agreement by the end of 2030. Nearly $200 billion is needed to assist the coalition of Southeast Asian nations known as ASEAN. While the needs are enormous, the funding will create new jobs and new technologies.
Lim Tuang Liang, the government chief sustainability officer at Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment; Cesar Jung-Harada, an associate professor of design at the Singapore Institute of Technology; Syed Mubarak, the government affairs chair for the Singapore Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers; and Aurel Moise, senior principal research scientist and deputy director of the Centre for Climate Research Singapore, discuss up-and-coming climate technologies and the potential for investment opportunities while mitigating climate change [Transcript | Video].
5 takeaways:
➀ Asia to be “most affected ” by climate change.
“Ninety-nine of the 100 cities that will be most affected by climate change are in Asia,” Jung-Harada said. Coincidentally, most climate technology is manufactured in Asia. “I’m not saying that technology’s going to solve everything, that’s not at all what I think, but technology is definitely going to be part of the solution,” Jung-Harada said.
➁ Energy needs can connect Asia.
Singapore, for example, can only generate about 10% of its energy demand through solar power, due to cloud cover and rain. It lacks strong wind and currents to bolster domestic wind and water energy supplies. As a result, Singapore is working with ASEAN and outside partners to import green electrons or green molecules. Multinational cooperation in the energy sector provides opportunities for job creation. “It is an opportunity for the financial sector to come together creating a better ecosystem for accessing finance so that the projects can be executed,” Mubarak said.
But unifying Asian countries under the same grid is challenging. “A lot of Asia is still under development,” Lim said. “There are different places and different geographies with different challenges, so they can’t be connected easily to an efficient grid.” Investors want to minimize risk and ensure their funded projects have a real impact, Lim said.
➂ The shrinking coral reef.
The oceans absorb the vast majority of the sun’s heat. Additionally, coral reefs only cover about 0.3 percent of the ocean floor, but they supply 25 percent of the ocean’s biodiversity. Projections show 90 percent of coral reefs will be dead by 2050, and 99 percent of them will be dead by 2100. Measuring coral reefs is a slow process, so brainstorming protection strategies does not offer a complete accounting. “By the time we have measured all the coral reefs, they’ll all be done, basically,” Jung-Harada said. “The time we have to measure coral reef is shrinking very, very fast.”
➃ Regional climate change can have global consequences.
The warming of the equatorial Pacific due to El Niño greatly impacts Singaporean rainfall, drought and flood incidents. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report may help countries better predict how climate change across the globe will impact their livelihoods specifically. Moise said much of his work is translating the impacts of global climate change for Singapore, especially related to food security. “The system is very complex… the IPCC report is the key document to read about these various systems, whereas if you go to very small countries like Singapore … you actually need a different set of data to understand this,” Moise said.
➄ Crop diversification and new food storage technology can reduce risk.
Singapore imports more than 90 percent of its food. As climate change threatens crops around the world, Singapore can store essential items, but storage has its own challenges. “You can’t store things perpetually,” Lim said. “Storage also requires technologies to preserve, as well as space to be able to do that.” Singapore hopes to reduce vulnerability by examining new seeds and new growing techniques, like controlled environment agriculture.
*This fellowship is part of an ongoing program of journalism training and awards for trade coverage sponsored by the Hinrich Foundation. The National Press Foundation is solely responsible for the content. All programs are on the record and resources and transcripts from this and previous fellowships are published.